Author and advisor, Bill Schultheis, started his work career in 1982 as a Smith Barney stock and bond broker. He is now a Boglehead who has served on our Panel of Experts at Boglehead conventions. Bill has just released his second "Coffeehouse" book. I was delighted to write the back-cover endorsement:
Below are a few of the book's valuable excerpts:"The Coffeehouse Investor's Ground Rules is a worthy addition to Bill Schultheis' first Coffeehouse Investor book. This latest book, written during a world-wide pandemic, proves the timeless wisdom of Coffeehouse investing in all type of markets. Unlike most investment books targeted only at making money, Bill shows us how to use our wealth to also achieve personal happiness.
Thank you, Bill Schultheis!"I created the Coffeehouse Investor and started writing the newspaper column that led to my current career in financial planning."
"The question every employee wants to know, and what financial institutions need to address: "How much do I need to save today to pay my expenses in retirement."
"The problem is, in our current system, the whole saving and investing thing is so nebulous that many don't know where to start. And so they don't."
"Over the past 20 years, Coffeehouse Investors have revealed that the best place to start is at the very beginning -- with a vision of what you want."
"You have got to save. It is the first ground rule of a life of wealth and happiness."
"Investing isn't about charts and statistics, it is about reaching a harmony with your money in the way you live your life."
"Financial struggles and differences in the way partners look at managing portfolios is one of the biggest issues in a marriage.
"The best way to maximize your returns in the stock market was to own all the companies through a low-cost index fund."
"We weighed the tortured experience of buying and selling stocks versus the benefits of buying all the stocks and holding them forever."
"An integral part of finding harmony within a financial plan is knowing you are on track and ignoring Wall Street."
"When it comes to saving for retirement most of us want the same thing: a lifestyle that reflect the one we hoped for while we were working."
"The best wealth-building technology ever created is still the automatic transfer of funds into a retirement account."
"If someone wants to retire early, and maps out a game plan to accomplish that, good for them."
"Only 24 percent of women are confident in their investing skills?"
"Your checkbook and common sense are what count for a life of wealth and happiness."
"Wall Street won't change. The industry will forever suggest that picking stocks, predicting trends, and forecasting economies is essential to your well-being (it's not)".
"Financial harmony begins with a conversation about getting on track -- to pay your bills on time, to initiate a retirement account, to establish a rainy-day fund, to create a financial plan."
"Fortunately, most workplace retirement plans have evolved over the years to include investment choices that allow you to build a Coffeehouse Investor-type portfolio with one investment-- a target date fund."
"Because markets are efficient, well over 80% of actively managed funds underperformed their respective indexes, or benchmarks, over the past 10 years."
"Over a lifetime of investing, studies have shown that the stock market drops about 20% or more every seven years."
"My father connected with a commodities broker and started trading commodities, and that was a disaster."
"I think you would agree that we have a culture that is captivated with the stock market, and it's only getting worse, with free trading and online access. That doesn't mean we must follow along."
"When you decide to buy the stock of Starbucks, you aren't really making a bet that Starbucks the company will continue to grow. You are making a bet that you are smarter than the collective wisdom of thousands of other investors.."
"The wisdom of owning all the companies instead of picking individual companies can be hard to grasp for investors who are set in their ways."
"A Target-date mutual fund benefits you in at least three ways: (1) Maximize portfolio returns; (2) Allow you to focus on your financial plan. (3) Allow you to get on with your life."
"You can live your life as if Wall Street doesn't exist."
"Past performance is virtually meaningless as a method for choosing a top mutual fund."
"Whether or not you are a factor fan, factors are here to stay. Factors have mushroomed into so many more factors like momentum and profitability that I can't keep track of them. Besides, I'd rather work on my golf game."
"Taylor invited me on his sailboat to race on Biscayne Bay. I loved every minute of it."
"What does matter is that you stay the course with what you embrace."
"I have seen one-page financial plans that work and 40-page financial plans that don't work because they are so complicated.."
"Today, Wall Street and Academia argue that the safe withdrawal rate is now 2%, or 3%, or should remain at 4%. The irony of this debate is that it does not matter. -- (if you) make small adjustments along the way."
"That's the stock market for you. Two steps forward and one step back."
"Too many young investors get caught up thinking they can build wealth by trading stocks and options and commodities and Bitcoin and anything else that catches their wealth-building attention."
"I am the luckiest person in the world because I get to work on both financial plans and flight plans."
"Connecting with Coffeehouse Investors over the years has confirmed my definition of a rich life."
"Don't spend too much time worrying about the past. Don't spend too much time worrying over the future. Live in the moment."
"I am inspired by the legacy of John Bogle to press on."
"I doesn't matter how much you make or how much you spend. If money creates anxiety, it saps your energy."
"We owe it to each other to make this a better world."
More Investment Gems
Best wishes
Taylor
Jack Bogle's Words of Wisdom: "It is the power of words and books—explaining and dramatizing great ideas and articulating high ideals—that is the greatest weapon in the missionary’s arsenal.”
